The PDF embedded in this page presents my interpretation of the three modes of thought available to us.
The first is the standard mode of thought in this world. Our separation from God created such unimaginable guilt that this world literally had to be projected outside of us. The one mind of God that we all share then became split into billions of ‘minds’ and bodies, all of which appear to be separate from us. When we observe any person, object, idea, or thing outside of us our brain immediately ‘recognizes’ it, names it, recovers past memories or stored thoughts about it, which colors our interpretation of it. The idea at this point becomes more important than the thing we observing, which we no longer see rightly. A favorite plan of the ego is to hold grievances, which we tell ourselves will be healed when the other person ‘changes’, which they never will. The vast majority of the world is trapped in this circular thinking system.
Under A Course in Miracles thought system, recognition, naming, and ideation (recovery of good or bad memories) still occurs, however at this point we are watching these patterns unfold in our minds and make a conscious decision to turn this entire encounter over to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sees all things as either Love, or a call for Love. Thus the Holy Spirit interprets the other persons ‘sins’ as illusory dreams that represent a call for Love, and that require not punishment but forgiveness. Forgiveness in these terms literally means overlooking the error as meaningless, regardless of whether they involved issues the world would see as inconsequential or errors the world would see as enormous. To the Holy Spirit, a small act of rudeness, or the genocide of millions, are the same in that they represent an illusory attack on what ultimately cannot be attacked. Our resistance to seeing this is extreme, as it represents the first of the 50 principles of miracles – that they all the same – that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. The course recognizes the tremendous fear to our minds these principles represent, and leads us through steps in forgiveness along a kind and incremental path to slowly undo our false perceptions that prevent right thinking.
Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986) is usually described as a philosopher, speaker, and writer. Krishnamurti himself would probably scoff at all such labels and tell you sternly to focus on his message. Who he ‘was’ is of no consequence.
‘K’ seemed to have the ability to literally see the world in a different way, in a way that the current speaker and writer Eckhart Tolle also seems to be describing. My interpretation of K’s passionate message is that only by knowing ourselves intimately, how we think, move, act, respond, only by going through the arduous work of watching every thought, can we discover that what we perceive is intercepted and interpreted (my inadequate words, not his) by our past memories. He used the term ‘choiceless awareness’ in observing the world, that through a process of choiceless awareness (seeing without labeling or spinning ideas) would lead to true perception unhindered by thought. He stated that thought had become a hindrance to seeing truly. In this state of seeing truly is the solution to the problem… which is not apart from the problem.
But consider the problem for each of us in doing this. By now you have no doubt evaluated the paragraph above through your past memory to determine whether or not this paragraph is worth your time reading. That part of what has become an almost automatic action of our ego or ‘centre’, which seeks only and endlessly to maintain and expand itself. If this technique appears to be a way to improve yourself… what would be improved would be your false self or the ego. Thus, we have already failed. K maintained that only by seeing the falseness of, and going beyond this false self which maintains itself by thought addiction, can we discover a tranquil mind into which true perception can naturally flow.
BTW, K stated many times not to be a ‘second hand person’ by quoting him as I have done here. A fear I have is ever meeting him in the afterlife and having to explain my inadequate interpretations of his message! If you have any interest I strongly suggest you begin by watching some of his talks on youtube. He is not easy to follow, it is hard work, but his messages are timeless works of beauty.
Ron
3Systems
